GASC13H3

Where is home? The Past, Present and Future of Tamil Diasporic Belonging

Using the experience of the Tamil diaspora as a case study, this course examines how ideas of home, identity, gender, politics, belonging, kinship and citizenship are transformed by migration and globalization. Tamil mobility has a long history. It has been shaped by colonial and post-colonial forces, war, labor and global business markets. What are the lived experiences of transnational/refugee families of Tamil communities? How is Tamil romance, marriage and intimacy actualized across national borders? How has mobility shaped Tamil politics, ideas of belonging and home? Through these questions about lived experience and drawing on ethnography fiction, and film, the course will explore debates about race, migration and diaspora, exile and nationalism, gender and immigration regimes. Prior knowledge of Tamil is not required.